Wheaton Academy vs. Streamwood Friday, February 08, 2007 at 7:30 PM ct
		1 2 3 4 T FINAL WA 15   13   09   15   52 SHS 12   20   21   14   67
	52		67

Streamwood 67, WA 52

Streamwood senior Tem Esikiel has had plenty of big games for the Sabres boys basketball team this season.

Unfortunately, most of them have come in losing efforts.

Friday, however, Esikiel's 32 points came in a winning cause. Streamwood avenged a season-opening loss to Wheaton Academy with a 67-52 nonconference win, breaking a 12-game losing streak.

"Every game that I scored big, it didn't matter," said Esikiel, who also led the team with 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. "I could have scored zero (Friday). The win means a lot."

Wheaton Academy (14-7) jumped out to a 17-12 lead early in the second quarter. The keys to the strong start were that the Warriors were in the bonus seven minutes into the game and did not turn the ball over in the first quarter.

The reason for losing that lead were also two-fold. The Warriors turned the ball over 18 times after that first quarter, and Esikiel started to get hot.

"We let Esikiel score way too often," Wheaton Academy senior center Paul Werkema said. "I think that was the biggest key. Once (the turnovers) started, we started to force it and it went downhill from there."

Down 23-18 Esikiel scored Streamwood's final 12 points of the half, part of a 14-5 run that gave the Sabres (4-18) a 32-28 lead at the break.

Wheaton Academy senior Ben Euler hit a 3-pointer in the corner to start the third quarter, but that was the end of the highlights for the Warriors.

A 15-2 run keyed by 8 points from Esikiel forced the lead to 47-33. Later in the third the Sabres rattled off a 12-0 run that stretched into the fourth quarter to make the lead 61-37. Wheaton Academy didn't score in the fourth quarter until the 2:14 mark.

The Sabres finally saw the effects of a rugged schedule in and out of the Upstate Eight Conference pay dividends against a solid team.

"We played a lot of good teams," Streamwood coach Tim Jones said. "You know you're going to get it handed to you a few times, but this is a good basketball team. I thought we played extremely hard. We have a great group of kids, and they play hard, but we just haven't been able to put it together in a game until tonight."